5 Tips for Making Ramadan Better for Everyone

For the past 5 weeks every single sermon on Friday has been about the same thing, our good friend Ramadan who is visiting again, as he does every year. They talked about what we need to do make sure we get the most out of this holy month but I'm going to give you five tips on how to make it better for people around you.

1. Share Your Acts of Worship on Social Media

You see, it's not enough to fast, pray taraweeh, witr, tahajjud and give charity. To amplify your blessing share your accomplishments on social media. Woke up for Fajr? Or even better, went to the masjid for Fajr? Begin by instagramming a picture of the masjid while it's still dark, as proof, then tweet and make a facebook status about how you made it to the first row and only 11 other people showed up. I recommend using a hashtag so the youth will be able to understand your posts. Not only do all your friends and followers LOVE seeing those statuses but seeing your good deeds will only encourage them do more themselves!

2. Encourage Our Sisters to Dress Modestly

I'm pretty sure there's a hadith somewhere that says modesty is a part of faith. So when we see our fellow sisters in Islam make sure you examine them fully and make sure they're modest. Remember that us men have to lower our gaze so make the most out of your first look! Then remind them to wear loose fitting clothes and to wear hijab properly. Chances are, they're never heard this before and need a quick reminder. Women can be emotional sometimes and might not take kindly to your sincere advice so tell them that women who don't wear hijab are like moldy lollipops or something, trust me they'll understand. After you inform them of proper modest dress they will be very thankful for your wisdom and be more conscious of modesty.

3. Forget About Proper Parking Etiquette

We are told in Islam to "race to do good deeds". What is more good than to pray in the masjid? Therefore brothers and sisters, race to the masjid! Literally, drive as fast as possible to maximize the time spent in the masjid. And when you reach the masjid do not waste time parking your car properly. Squeeze into the nearest parking spot, even if a car already occupies it, and get out and rush to the prayer. If you can't find a parking spot make your own. The lines in the parking lot are created by man and man is not perfect, only Allah is. If there is pavement, there is parking. If you can't find absolutely anywhere to park then feel free to block the entrance with your car. It will encourage others to get to the masjid earlier than you, and you will be rewarded for encouraging this.

4. Bring All Your Young Children to the Masjid

There's a problem in the Muslim community with teenagers who don't want to go to the masjid for various reasons. To combat this we need them to develop a love for the masjid early on, as early as possible actually. As soon as they're out of the womb they should be in the masjid, actually they should come out of the womb in the masjid itself. Bring your children to taraweeh so when everyone is dozing off their cries and screams will wake everyone up and keep them attentive to the prayers. And don't you dare put them in the free child care the masjid offers, your children should not be quietly playing with toys and making friends while everyone is praying. Keep your children in the praying area so they can help everyone maintain their focus.

5. Keep Up Your Dawah Efforts 

I've noticed many brothers who, during the other 11 months, keep in contact with many non-Muslim people, mainly of the opposite gender. This is amazing, think of all the dawah these kind brothers are giving, throughout the entire year! For some reason I see a lot of them stopping during Ramadan and then resume their dawah the first day of Eid. I don't understand? Ramadan is the month where our reward is multiplied so why stop a source of immense rewards? Brothers I encourage you to keep up your dawah at all times. Sometimes your acquaintances might want to meet, GO! Spread the message to these kind non-Muslim sisters.

The Art of Troubleshooting (Part 1)

I like fixing things. Computers, vacuums, cars, cell phones, washing machines, dishwashers, sinks, ceiling fans, chainsaws, home electrical wiring, you name it I've fixed it. There are many benefits to fixing things yourself. You save money, time and (usually) know the quality of your fix. And then there's the satisfaction of doing it yourself which, in my opinion, is the best of them.

There's three steps to fixing something: identifying the problem, addressing the problem, and verifying the solution. Today we focus on the first, and more important part, identifying the problem. Obviously, you need to identify the problem before you can fix it. Identifying the problem involves looking at the symptoms, and applying your knowledge of the situation in order to identify likely causes of the symptoms.

Many would-be DIY (do-it-yourself) mechanics fail to do this. They identify some symptoms, and then "throw parts" at the problem instead of spending more time diagnosing it. This is a huge waste of time, effort and money. If your brake rotors are scratched and you just replace the rotors without understanding WHY they got scratched then chances are the new set you put on will face the same fate. This applies to almost anything. If you have mold on a wall, you can cut out and replace the section of the wall but without treating the root cause you're just putting a loose band-aid on the problem.

The first thing you need to do is learn about whatever it is your working on. Without some knowledge of the situation you aren't going to be able to understand what caused whatever you are dealing with and your ability to actually address the problem will be limited. Car overheating? Learn how your cooling system works. Bedroom doesn't have power at any outlets? Learn how home wiring works.

The internet has the complete sum of human knowledge available at the click of a button. Anything you want to learn, you can. If I'm tackling something I haven't worked with before I'll learn as much as I can beforehand. Read articles, forums, and watch videos on YouTube all with the intent of learning. You have to be broad in your scope because you don't know what's going to be the thing that helps you identify the cause of what you're dealing with. Keep learning until you can explain it to someone else.

The other method of learning, which I recommend to be used in conjunction with the one above is to examine and tinker with what you have. You can learn a lot by just looking at something and figuring out how it works. Open something up and put it back together. See how parts fit together and how they might work when they're operating. Doing this after you read up on how something works gives you the best possible understanding and foundation for troubleshooting.

Flowcharts like these are very helpful if you can find one
applicable to your situation

Ideally, after you've learned about the system your working on you'll be able to use your deductive reasoning to diagnose the problem completely. If not then, then google it! I'm going to spoil the master trick of anybody who's fixed a computer before. At least 80% of the issues we deal with aren't things we instantly know how to fix; we just google them and follow suggestions posted online. Now be warned, we don't do it mindlessly. With a basic understanding of how a computer works we can read similar problems people have had and conclude which is most likely in our specific scenario. This is why understanding what you're working on is so important, mindlessly following tutorials on the internet will often lead to making your problem even worse.

Now rarely, if ever, do we search online and find the exact cause of our issue. Normally we gain an understanding surrounding the problem and limit our possibilities down to a few likely causes. Then we have to tinker with whatever we're working on to isolate the exact cause. Let's say the light switch in your home doesn't work and through your research you've isolated it to two things: loose wiring or a faulty switch. You unscrew the cover and take a look at the switch and the wiring going to it. Online you learned how to test a switch using a multimeter. You disconnect the switch and find it to be functioning properly. This leaves loose wiring as your identified diagnosis. This is one area where following online tutorials WILL be super helpful. Troubleshooting tutorials walk you through how to test certain problems are great in helping people isolate specific issues. Following these tutorials is also a fantastic way to apply your previous research. You want to avoid tutorials that show you how to fix/replace things until you've diagnosed the problem.

The final and most important skill for anyone  properly troubleshooting things is to embrace failure. You will fail, and you will fail often the more you try to fix things. My parents lost power in their bedroom a year ago and I tried fixing it but only got one outlet to work. I tried some more over the next few days but couldn't figure it out. Fast forward a year and 25 YouTube videos later I understood the issue, understood how much I messed up the wiring a year ago, and managed to fix the power for about $10 and 30 minutes. The first project car I worked on had a blown headgasket and after repairing it I forgot that I had dropped a bolt in the engine. I started her up tried to drive and blew up the engine beyond repair. The point is you will screw up (a lot) but the idea isn't to be some magic genie that can fix anything on command, it's to add all the experience to your arsenal and slowly increase your success rate and limit the resources you use to fix things. The more things you see the better you'll be, and there's no substitute for that.